A consultation has been launched by the Cabinet Office regarding the Green Paper, which seeks to simplify public procurement in the UK following EU exit.
Changes to public procurement rules proposed in the Green Paper include:
- Slashing the 350+ regulations governing public procurement and integrating the current regulations into ‘a single, uniform framework.’
- Replacing procurement procedures with three ‘simple and modern’ procedures: a new flexible procedure that seeks to give buyers freedom to negotiate and innovate to get the best from the private, charity and social enterprise sectors, an open procedure that buyers can use for simpler, ‘off the shelf’ competitions, and a limited tendering procedure that buyers can use in certain circumstances, such as crisis or extreme urgency
- Allowing buyers to include wider social benefits of the supplier, such as economic, social and environmental factors, when assessing who to award a contract to
- Giving buyers the power to ‘properly’ take account of a bidder’s past performance, allowing them to exclude suppliers who have failed to deliver in the past
- A new unit to oversee public procurement with powers to improve commercial skills of public sector contractors
- A single digital platform where suppliers must submit their data only once to qualify for any public sector procurement.
More information about this consultation, which closes at 11.45pm on 10 March 2021, and how to take part is available in the Green Paper.
The Green Paper can be downloaded from the government website.
